Hawkeye Reporter

Omar Barrientos, a 35-year-old resident of Sioux City, Iowa, pleaded guilty in federal court on August 19, 2025, to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

According to evidence presented at the plea hearing, law enforcement officers responded on June 20, 2024, to a report of a person sleeping in a vehicle parked at Thompson Electric in Sioux City. Officers found Barrientos alone inside the vehicle. He displayed unusual behavior and signs of impairment. Police observed pills in the center console and a white crystalline substance on the driver’s side floorboard that appeared to be methamphetamine. A further search uncovered a bag under the driver’s seat containing nearly one pound of methamphetamine. Barrientos admitted he intended to distribute some or all of the methamphetamine.

Barrientos has prior convictions for willful injury and criminal gang participation from 2009. In 2016, he was again convicted of willful injury as well as assault while displaying a dangerous weapon and going armed with intent.

Sentencing is scheduled to take place before United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand after completion of a presentence report. Barrientos remains in custody pending sentencing by the United States Marshal. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and up to life imprisonment, along with a possible $20 million fine and at least ten years of supervised release following incarceration.